Wednesday, November 12, 2008

No actual bees were harmed in the making of this delicious soup. Whenever I do a recipe that's going to have a long name, like Bacon, Black Bean and Corn Chowder, I try to come up with some short name that will fit in the video's subtitle frame. This time the yellow and black highlights inspired the bumblebee moniker.One great thing about this chowder is the thick, rich texture isn't dependent on any blender action. I always cringe when I read a recipe that has the reader pour the soup into a blender and "blend until smooth." All I see is scalding hot liquid flying out the top of the blender at 500 RPM (been there, felt that).

As you'll see, this soup is thickened with a safe, simple, and gentle mashing in the pot, with a potato masher. The other great thing with this bumblebee soup is that it tastes like it was cooked for hours, but is actually relatively quick - perfect if you're busy as a, well, you know. So, make this for your honey, and enjoy!

Just curious, Chef: is there a number to the range of dishes you can make? Do you have an idea of how many recipes you'll ultimately post and create? I do like watching your cooking videos and just thought I'd ask. Looking at the archives is like leafing through a really great cookbook.

* corn wasn't frozen -> not "crispy" anymore when the soup was finished (and probably released more starch?).* meshed half of the beans before adding them to the soup -> I think i did it a bit too good, so the soup got very thick.* no Mexican oregano -> don't know how it tastes.

Anyway, the soup was simple delicious.Had to restart twice because the bacon disappeared mysteriously every time before I could continue prepping the recipe.

This was lunch today. I was forced to use 6 slices of bacon because they were frozen together & hey what would I do with only two leftover pieces of bacon anyway.I also had to sub canned kidney beans (too lazy for a trip to the market) and Greek oregano. Kidney beans were too firm (no surprise) but soup was great anyway. The cable guys came after we finished the soup & they said something smelled wonderful.Luisa Vacaville

This soup was great! I've been wanting to make one of your recipes for a while, so I finally chose this one because it looked delicious and easy, and it was just that. I think I'll double it next time though, cause it made about 4 good servings, and I'd like to have leftovers to eat for a couple days. Thanks for the hard work!

Chef John,I made this delicious soup for lunch today -- pairing it with some BLTs, since, come on, who doesn't love a BLT? When I came back to my kitchen to deal with the leftovers, I found that the soup had thickened up significantly in the meantime, almost to the point of becoming the thickness of a dip.So I decided to take the thick leftovers, stuff them in a pepper with some boneless pork ribs, and then -- kinda, sorta -- follow the technique for your stuffed peppers. These peppers were definitely delicious, and a nice change of pace from using ground beef. I would say that the ground beef peppers were a little bit heartier, but that's a small complaint.Thanks again!

We've been having a week or so of unusually chilly weather here in Minneapolis again. Or, as I like to call it - free air-conditioning! It's was the perfect opportunity to try a new soup recipe before it gets too hot to want to.

How can you NOT make a recipe called Bumblebee Soup? I loved it. The gang at worked loved it. I didn't have any frozen or canned corn but I did have fresh corn on the cob so I used that. I also used six strips of thick-cut hardwood smoked bacon because, well, bacon makes everything better! More bacon = more better!

Seriously, this was delicious and a definite keeper. Will it be in the new cookbook? And, when does it finally come out? Of course I'm impatient... I'm hungry!

So I adapted this recipe tonight for using up some leftover smoked chicken from the weekend. Here's how I tweaked it:

- 3 cups chopped smoked chicken- 1/2 tsp. each cumin and coriander- Only 1 can of black beans in the pantry. Crap! But I also had a can of refried black beans, so I chucked that in there too.- some extra water to thin out the refried beans

Garnished with some fresh cilantro and lime for acidity. Turned out really well, nice easy weeknight meal. Would've loved to add some chipotles in adobo, but not everybody loves the spicy in my house.

I made this soup the other day with minor adjustments. In addition to the bacon, I added chorizo (a got the raw links and took the meat out of the casing and fried it up) and lawd have mercy is was more than delicious. Thanks Chef John!

So I have been on a soup kick the last 2 weeks. This is the fifth soup I have made and it may just me my family’s favorite. Chef John is right, is comes together very fast is very satisfying. I served it with a green salad and chicken breast. Toward the end of my soup I dumped the rest of my grilled chicken breast into my soup, and that just put it over the top. Then my husband and son did the same. My husband (who is not a soup person) says with the added chicken this soup would be a complete meal. He really loved it and claimed the leftovers to be his – not that there was much leftover. The ½ teaspoon of the chipotle pepper was just the right amount for me and my son. Neither of us likes food to be very spicy and this added just enough heat without being too spicy. Even my husband who does like spicy food was happy with this amount of chipotle pepper.